Passing an exam is normally a prerequisite for being licensed by a state before a broker-dealer or investment adviser can work with investors. The exams are administered for NASAA by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

The Series 63, Uniform Securities Agent State Law Examination, is the state law test for broker-dealer representatives. The Series 65, Uniform Investment Adviser Law Examination, is for investment adviser representatives.

Passing the Series 66, the Uniform Combined State Law Examination, qualifies an individual as if he or she had passed both the Series 63 and Series 65. However, to register as an investment adviser representative based on the Series 66, an individual must also have passed the FINRA Series 7 exam and the exam must be valid (i.e., not expired).

There are other requirements, such as an application (usually done by a firm using Form U4), background check, bonding, and fee payment that a state may impose before granting a license.

Exam Specification Changes, Effective July 1, 2016

NASAA recently completed its periodic review and content update of the Series 63, 65, and 66 examinations. NASAA, with the assistance of Prometric, a leading test development company, undertook a more than year-long review of each examination’s content and scoring, incorporating the feedback received by more than 1,000 industry participants and regulators. As a result of this content review, NASAA has updated the test specifications for each of its examinations to better reflect the skills and knowledge needed by broker-dealer agents and investment adviser representatives in today’s ever-changing financial industry.